4/25/11

Monday Morning Offering - 141


Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

It's Easter Monday, Lord,
and time to look back a bit...

I'm thinking of the women who came to the tomb
expecting to find you dead
but finding that you had already risen
from the dead...

I'm thinking of the apostles
hiding in fear behind locked doors...

I'm thinking of Peter,
finally making his way to the tomb
and walking away in amazement...

I'm thinking of the two disciples
walking with you on the road to Emmaus
and not recognizing you until...

Seems like your closest friends
didn't get it right away, Lord:
even when you were right in their faces
they didn't understand what had happened...

It took time for it all to sink in...

It took time for them to understand,
to believe, to act on what they believed...

It takes me time, too, Lord...

All these years,
and the message of Easter
is still sinking in, making itself known,
making itself real in my life...

I still don't understand everything about Easter:
Sometimes I understand the dying part
better than I understand the rising part...

I want you in my life
but sometimes I hide from you
because I'm not sure what having you in my life
will cost me...

I believe you're somehow always with me, Lord,
but I'm sure I miss you lots of times
even when you're right in my face...

So this Easter Monday morning, Lord,
I offer you the ways I hope I will begin to live Easter
more this year than ever before...

I want to learn to wrap a towel around my heart
as you wrapped a towel around your waist:
I want to have a heart wrapped in your love
and ready to serve others' needs before my own...

Help me to see how my sins added
to the burden on your shoulders
on the cross:
my sins made your load heavier...

And help me learn, Lord,
that you are always just ahead of me,
drawing me out of myself,
out of my darkness into your light,
calling me to be closer to you,
beckoning me to follow where you lead
and to find you,
even though I know you
are always right by my side...

Help me to understand
when I don't understand, Lord;
to "get it" when I'm confused;
to take the time to let the Easter story sink in
to the depths of my mind, my heart, my life...

And because I so often miss you
when you walk with me, Lord,
open my eyes and ears and heart
to those in need around me
and help me to find you in them,
to serve you in them...

It's Easter Monday, Lord,
and I'm looking back:
draw me out of the darkness into your light,
always closer to your risen face shining upon my own...

Amen.


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5 comments:

  1. Your prayers Fr. Fleming are so real. They are from the heart and they speak the words that we all feel. Thank you for sharing them with us. May we all bask in the Easter Glow this Easter Monday.
    Andie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely and perfect reflection. I am in a bit of a "non-place" this Easter; wondering what's next in a weird sort of limbo. Off to this blogging meeting soon and I am wondering how it will work out.
    Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for your kind words, Andie!

    Phil, I hope/trust you'll be blogging from the meeting in Rome!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, I'm all booked and ready to go - I'll probably be dumbstruck - or more likely silenced !
    Please keep me in your prayers- and pray I engage brain before opening my mouth !
    Hope you are enjoying some time for yourself after the exhausting schedule of the last few days.
    Blessings

    ReplyDelete
  5. I certainly hope you'll open your mouth, Phil, and share your faith experience as a blogger with the others present. Each voice present needs and deserves to be heard and that certainly includes your own!

    ReplyDelete

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